by – Product of the System

An Unbooked Pregnancy

A 42-year-old lady presents with strong contraction pains at 3am. Of Filipino descent and speaking no Bahasa Malaysia, she was unable to provide any valuable clinical history pertinent to her current pregnancy.

In addition, she did not seek any antenatal care. A multiparous lady with 12 other children, she gave birth uneventfully but her premature 31-week baby developed breathing complications from his immature lungs.

He was referred to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Likas, where he was treated for the next 48 days with costly first-line medications and neonatal supplements. Further investigations revealed congenital syphilis contracted from his mother.

Unable to settle the five-figure hospital bill, the father paid a meagre RM 10.00, vowing to settle the outstanding amount on their next clinic visit.

Seen in the clinic one month later, the couple returned with their child and – brand new Malaysian ICs. Declaring themselves now to be Malaysian Bajaus, they were absolved of all their hospital debts and spirited onto the red carpet of Bumiputeraship.

A Neglected Child

A frail 3-year-old Indonesian boy was admitted for severe dehydration from a two-week history of infective diarrhea.

The second youngest of 14 children, the family lives in a 5m X 8m stilt house built over sea water, aptly known as kampong air. They draw water and electricity from illegal connections made stealthily to the homes of local Sabahans.

Domestic waste and human excrement are disposed off by open sea dumping and drop latrines. On examination, the child was drowsy in hypotensive shock and was severely malnourished.

Over a period of 4 weeks, he was given intensive care and nursed back to health with adequate rehydration and total parenteral nutrition costing RM 1,000 per day.

Upon discharge, the parents swore themselves to be Bajau, flashed newly-minted Mykads and laid claim to the privilege of free healthcare.

From pendatang tanpa izin just a month ago, they’ve become warganegara Islam and are therefore eligible to the broad spectrum of bumiputera privileges under UMNO’s New Economic Policy.

The child went back to the family home, where he nonchalantly resumed his daily routine of waddling barefooted in the filthy mud of kampong air littered with human excrement.

A Jobless Lad

An unemployed 28-year-old man was admitted after a freak road accident. After a heavy alcohol binge, he went on a terror joyride with a friend equally under the influence.

He suffered a grade 3 open fractures of both his right forearm bones with multiple tendon and nerve cuts. He underwent a complicated and costly emergency surgery, the first of many to come.

Over the next two months, he underwent repeated reconstructive procedures — readjustments of metal fixator, wound debridements and skin flaps.

He was seen in the clinic a week after discharge whereby he now professes to be a Bajau. His outstanding hospital bills were consequently declared null and void. Read the rest of this entry »